


Penance

by Queen_Kit



Series: Twinnish [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen, Qui-Gon Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 01:30:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6591163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Kit/pseuds/Queen_Kit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Recovering from the Injuries he received on Naboo, Qui-Gon Jinn returns to Tattooine</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penance

It had taken him a long time to get up his courage to go there even after he had recovered enough to leave the temple.  Tattooine.  It was a hard place to go back to, for good or ill.  So much had happened there.  So much had happened since.  But Qui-Gon Jinn was nothing if not persistent and even his own lack of courage hadn’t stopped him from acquiring passage to the planet.  Luckily his courage had managed to find him along the way.

He had a duty to perform.

He had left a woman behind on this planet a bare handful of weeks ago with a promise that he would look after her son.  He had already broken his word, by his own negligence and near death.  He should thank his stars that he had Padawan’s kind enough to stand for him even when they needed to do healing of their own.

He needed to apologize.

It wasn’t even just for that really.  It was for leaving her behind.

It was the only course of action at the time.  The best course of action at the time.  He kept telling that to himself, but it never really made it feel any better.

He had seen the heartbreak in their eyes at their parting.

Another breath and he was at her door, his hand was poised to knock when it opened in front of him. And there she was wearing that same forgiving smile, even with the worry behind her eyes.  There was a spark there too, something that said that while she hadn’t known who her visitor was, she had already known someone was there.

It wasn’t unheard of for force sensitivity to be a familial trait.

“Master Jinn.  What brings you back to Tattooine so soon?”

“I’m here,” He couldn’t help his hesitation, but he pushed on, “To apologize.”

The worry flashed in her eyes more strongly and he realized how badly that must have come across.

“It’s nothing that terrible, Anakin is fine.  He’s doing well and spending time with my Padawan’s actually.”  Soon to be former padawan’s likely.  One a knight and one, well, she hadn’t even really been a Padawan but he’d be damned if she wasn’t a good Jedi, raised outside their order or now.

“Oh.”  Her relief was palpable.

“May I, could I come in?”  The words tasted as awkwardly on his tongue as they sounded in the air.  “There are some things I feel I need to tell you.”

She seemed to recognize his struggle and she smiled gently at him.  It left an ache in his heart as he saw something there he didn’t know he needed.  Forgiveness.  She hadn’t even heard a word and somehow it was already there.

“Of course.  You are always welcome here Master Jinn.”

His aching healing body became a regular presence around her quarters when she had free time.  They spoke about many things.  His regret at the risks that Anakin had already taken to become a Padawan met a mother’s consoling stories about trouble he had gotten himself into just by way of growing up on Tattooine.

A mother’s love for her son leading to conversations about a Jedi Master’s deep affection (dare he call it love?) for his charged.  Somehow the conversation even led to Xanatos.  The failure on his part that still filled him with guilt that he could not find penance for.

In the end when she could not sooth him through words alone she gave him the penance he could not find for himself.  He worked beside her under the hot Tattooine sun, toiling for days with little return for his labor.  Strangely enough between that and talking he found his burden growing less.

When Watto finally kicked him from the shop, claiming he scared off customers, Qui-Gon found work of his own while she was busy.  The hard work was soothing to him more than any vacation could have been.  He liked to keep himself busy, to keep feeling like he was doing some good.

By the time his six month stay of duty for recovery was over he was surprised to find himself with a large pile of local credits for which he would soon have no use and an extreme reluctance to leave the planet.  At least to leave the planet without her.

Anakin Skywalker deserved to have his mother back.

The credits he had earned in his penance and healing exile would be used to perform the best act of care he knew how to give a mother and her son.

Qui-Gon was going to set the Lady Skywalker free.


End file.
